Frostbite
by sunnyonminecraft
Summary: Since Garmadon's sacrifice, Lloyd hasn't been feeling himself lately. That is, until he meets a strange girl who leads him into a village full of other elementals! But, soon they find out that the village- as well as the elementals- are in danger! It's up to the ninja, the girl and her family, and new friends to stop this new threat. But what is he? (note: re-do of earlier work)
1. Prologue

Frostbite** Prologue Hey, guys! Sunny here! And I don't know about you, but I'm so freaking PUMPED for Frostbite's re-write! I hope you enjoy it as much as you did the original!**

**Anyway, ONWARD MY FRIENDS! **

No one's p.o.v

_12 years earlier... _

The brunette woman silently walked into her bedroom. Her eyes became misty while she thought of what she had just been told. She let a single tear roll down her cheek.

"Misako?" a voice said.

She turned to see her darker haired husband standing in the doorway. He had a look of sorrow on his face.

"Dear-" he started, but was interrupted by Misako burying her head in his shoulder and crying. He wrapped his arms around her.

"I know," he said softly. "I'll miss them, too."

Misako lifted her head up. "I think," she said, " that I need to be alone for a while."

"I understand," Garmadon said. He kissed her forehead, and she walked out of the room.

Garmadon stood there in silence for a minute before he walked over to a small table near the bed. He grabbed his journal and started writing.

"_Today, tragedy struck,__"_ he wrote. "_Kenta Furosto and his wife Tinashi were both killed when they went to stop Morro and his reign of terror. They were dear friends to Misako and me. __Before they died, they left me a__ small necklace __to __protec__t__. They said that it has great power and for me to give it to their youngest child when she becomes an adult.__ The reason behind all this__, I do not know__, but it's the least I can do after what they have done for everyone.__ I only hope the venom in my veins does not overtake me before I can __repay them__."_

He stopped writing and put away the journal. He pulled the necklace out of his pocket and studied it. It was a brilliant gold locket with a gem in the middle of it. Splashes of blue, green, and violet colored the gem.

Looking at the necklace made the events of that day come back in his mind.

_"Garmadon," Tinashi whispered, "don't give it to her until she grows up. She's much too young to handle the power. It could seriously injure her." _

_"Why are you entrusting me with this?" he questioned. "Couldn't you two give it to her?" _

_"Garmadon, we won't be around to give it to her," Kenta said. _

_"Wha-what are you talking about?!" he said, becoming alarmed. _

_"Tell our children...we're sorry," Kenta said. _

He forced those thoughts out of his head. He then got up and got out a small box with a lock on it.

_I know it will cause the venom to tempt me,_ he thought. _It's best if I put it in safekeeping._ I'll explain the situation to Misako.

And with that, he put the necklace in the box and locked it. "Goodbye, my friends," he said.

**So, how was it?! Good, bad, in-between?!**

**Sorry if I messed with your feels! I just thought it would be a good way of letting you know that stuff's about to go down! **

**Question of the chapter: what do you think the necklace does? Until the next chapter! Peace out!**


	2. I have WAY too many snakes in my life

**Frostbite**

**Chapter 1**

**Guess whose back!**

**(Crickets chirping)**

**Ummm...it's me, Sunny! Are you happy to see me?!**

**(Crickets chirping)**

**...You guys are mad at me for not updating for so long, aren't you?**

_WHAT DO YOU THINK?!_  
><strong><br>****Hey, this is my spot Dj! Though, yes, it has been a while since I've updated. Hehehe... I'm sorry. I made a promise I to do better, and I didn't keep it. If you're mad, you have every right to be. If you need to blow off steam... just send your angry emails to jerkwhodoesntkeepherpromisestodobetter .**

**Welp, there's only one thing left to say:**

**LET THEM READ FANFICTION!**

Present day...

Lloyd's p.o.v

"Where are you going?" Zane called out as I started to walk out the door.

"On a walk," I answered.

"Walk? You never go for walks," Mom said, coming from the kitchen. "Something wrong?"

"No," I said. "It just looks nice outside."

Mom raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," I said a little too quickly.

She paused as if she wanted to say something else, but then she just gave a slight smile and said, "Alright. Be back by dinner." I nodded and went out the door.

Ok, so maybe I was lying. Ever since my dad was sent to the Cursed Realm, things had been...difficult, to say the least. Both my mom and I had taken Dad leaving really hard. Every so often, I would find my mom crying in her room, and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't cried once or twice. Yeah, I knew his sacrifice prevented what might have been certain doom, but that still didn't take the sting away. Him leaving left a pretty deep hole in my life.

I tried concentrating on all the good things that were happening. Zane and Cyrus Borg were working on a new body for P.I.X.A.L so now she and Zane could be back together. Jay, Nya, and Cole had (thank God) finally saw how stupid the whole love-triangle was and ended it. My mom had bought a house that we all currently lived in, so I finally got my own room. The only thing that wasn't so good was Skylar. Ever since the tournament, the other elemental masters hadn't totally forgiven her for helping with Chen's plan. Whenever she was around they would always look at her like she was some kind of bug that flew into the room. No one aside from me and my friends could stand her, and the worst part of it was that she knew exactly what they thought of her. She didn't really talk much or go out in public. Kai tried coaxing her out a few times, but he was unsuccessful. She just wouldn't come out of her shell.

Anyway, I started down a path that went into the forest near where the Bounty was stationed. It was a pretty forest, so I just let my eyes drift around the scenery. Spring had come, making everything green. I had a feeling that if I stood still, I would be practically invisible. All was quiet...until-

"ROOOAAARRR!"

"Is that all you've got, ya overgrown worm?!"

I snapped back into focus. Some one was in trouble! I ran towards the commotion.

I was nearly there when the ground beneath me disappeared. I fell down a hill, rolling and tumbling until I hit a log at the bottom. "Ow," I groaned while rubbing my head. I turned to the right, and what I saw nearly made me scream.

It was a huge snake (as if I haven't seen enough of THOSE in my life). It's scales were a copper color with a black streak running down its back. But the thing that set it apart from the Great Devourer and Clouse's snake was that it had nine heads! Each of the heads had two long fangs coming out of the mouth and piercing red eyes.

One of the heads was thrashing around violently while the rest were nipping at something on the head. I couldn't make out what it was...that is, until it was sent flying straight at me!

"OH, CRAP!" was all I could say before impact was made and I was sent flying backwards until I hit a tree. Once again, I groaned and rubbed my head. That's when I finally what-or in this case who- was fighting the snake.

It was a girl around seventeen or eighteen, and she had light blond hair with a blue streak that was tucked in a long braid that stopped at her waist. Messy bangs covered her eyebrows. She had a spray of freckles on her nose and was dressed in a plain white T-shirt and shorts. She was extremely tiny, probably only 4'11 or maybe even less. She carried a silver bow and a quiver filled with arrows. A sword sheath was on her back. I couldn't see what color her eyes were because they were closed. She was, like me, groaning and rubbing her head.

"Hey, are you-" I started. Then, she opened her eyes, and I suddenly couldn't find my voice.

They were extremely pretty; ice-blue with specks of indigo in them. I looked into them, and they seemed to stop me from thinking. She tilted her head a little, and they glittered like sapphires. I probably would have been there for the rest of the day, staring into them and trying to remember where I was, but then the girl gave me a half-concerned, half-weirded out look and said, "Hey, buddy, are you okay?"

That jarred me back into reality. I realized that I was staring stupidly at her. Immediately, my face turned beet-red and I stood up. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that she was sitting on me, so she ended up getting knocked to the ground.

"What was that for?!" she exclaimed angrily while picking herself up.

My face turned even redder. "I'm so sorry! It was an accident! I didn't mean-"

"ROOOAAARRR!" I heard again. All the heads lunged down at us. The girl and I dodged out of the way, leaving the heads in the stuck in the ground.

"Ha! You missed!" I taunted.

"That wasn't the attack," the girl said. Unfortunately, she was right.

All heads came up from the ground, each with a huge hunk of rock in their mouths. "RUN!" she screamed. We both dove behind a log as the rocks came crashing down.

"Alright, I'm giving you one more chance to stop, then I bring out the heavy artillery!" the girl yelled. For that, she got tree trunk flung at her. "Suit yourself!" She stuck two fingers in her mouth and gave a shrill three-note whistle. And...nothing happened.

"What was that supposed to do?!" I yelled.

"Wait for it," she said. We kept dodging the heads that kept snapping at us. Still nothing happened.

"Wait for it," she called from the shelves of rock she was pinned against while fighting two heads.

"STILL WAITING!" I yelled while shooting green energy at another head. It didn't really help much. In fact, nothing we did seemed to do anything aside from annoy it.

"WAIT LONGER!" she screamed back. As soon as she said that, the snake's tail came around behind her and sent her flying, once again, into me. This time, however, the tail wrapped us in a coil.

"Is this what we were waiting for?!" I growled. "Cause if it is, that was a terrible solution."

"It still hasn't come yet," she said behind grit teeth.

"Whatever it is, it better come soon, because-" I was cut off by the coils starting to tighten. "Yeah, that."

The girl started struggling to get out, but it only got tighter. I nudged her foot. "Don't you know anything about getting out of a coil?" I said. "The more you struggle, the worse it-"

I was cut off by a huge blast of purple light hitting the snake. It roared and uncoiled, and we dropped to the ground. Another blast hit the snake, causing one of its heads to get stuck between the shelves of rock.

"What-was-THAT?!" I exclaimed.

"What we were waiting for," the girl said. She gave another whistle. "Anubis! Over here, buddy!"

Out of the trees, a dragon came bounding out. It was rather small compared to other dragons, maybe only 20 feet long, and it had flashing dark purple scales with a splash of gold on the end of its tail and gleaming yellow eyes. It obviously belong to the girl, due to the saddle on its back. I watched in silence as she started scratching it under its chin and saying 'who's a good boy' over and over.

"You had a dragon this whole time?" I questioned.

"Yep, " she said.

"...WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THAT FIRST?!"

"Because reasons!" She got on the dragon and motioned for me to follow. "Hop on."

"Uh, no offense," I said, "but frankly, it's not wise to take rides from strangers, and I've never met any one stranger than you."

She gave me an annoyed look. "First of all, that pun was horrible," she said. "Second, it's either this giant reptile," she lightly pat her dragon, "or that one." She pointed to the snake just as it finally got its head out of the rock.

I didn't need any more convincing. "LET ME ON!" I yelped. I grabbed her hand, and just like that, we were up in the air. We were still close to the snake, but far enough so it couldn't get us. I saw the girl grabbing an arrow from her quiver.

"Uh, is that really gonna do anything against that thing?" I asked.

"It will. Just trust," she said. "By the way, there's a pack behind you, do you think you can get it for me?"

"Why?"

"Just. GET IT."

Exasperated, I reached behind me and grabbed a small brown pack. After I handed it to her, she started rummaging through it.

"Let's see, flashlight, headphones, dagger, pack of Oreos, compass, cell phone, water bottle,Rachel's Pikachu plushie- so THAT'S where it went- rubber band ball, Twilight book I was gonna blow up-Ah! There it is!"

She pulled out a small vial of bright blue liquid and dipped the arrowhead in it. She started notching the arrow into her bow.

"I REALLY don't think that one puny little arrow is gonna do anything!" I said.

She pulled back the bowstring. "You know, you're really starting to irritate me now," she responded. She aimed carefully, and a minute later, she let her arrow fly.

It hit it right underneath its chin. Immediately, blue vapor starting coming from the snake. It started growing smaller as it slithered around trying to figure out what was happening.

"What did you do?!" I said as we landed.

"I won," she responded.

"You're insane!"

"I take that as a compliment."

The blue vapor finally stopped. What was left was the snake, still the same, except now it was only about 3 feet long. All nine heads stared in fear at the girl, who was walking straight towards it. She got on one knee and crouched down to its eye level.

"Scat."

Immediately, the snake hissed and slithered away as fast it could. The girl watched with a smug look on her face. "Good riddance!" she exclaimed.

"Hey!" I called. She turned her head around. "What the heck was that-OOF!"

I was knocked to the ground by the dragon, who now sat on me, preventing me from moving. "Hey!" I yelled. "Get off of me, ya oversized lizard!"

It growled and swatted my head with its tail. "What was that for?!" I said.

"He doesn't like being called a lizard," a voice said above me. I stared up, and there was the girl, who was biting her cheek to keep from laughing at my predicament. I frowned at her.

"Stop laughing," I said.

"I'm not laughing," she said, the goofy grin on her face growing bigger.

"You want to!"

"No, I-" She snickered. "Okay, I do!" She started laughing. "I'm sorry!"

"You're not sorry!"

"I KNOW, BUT I'M ACTING LIKE IT!"

I watched in annoyance as she laughed harder. "Okay, okay, I get it. It's hilarious," I said. "Now that you've had a good laugh, could you PLEASE get your dragon off me?"

She stopped laughing, but she kept her grin. "Anubis, off."

Anubis (I guessed that's was his name was) got off me, but he snarled at me as he walked back to his owner. I got the impression that he didn't like me.

The girl helped me up. "Are you okay? Are you hurt in any way?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I said. Huh, I thought. I guess she isn't all crazy after all.

"Then WHAT THE HECK WHERE YOU DOING?!" She yelled while shaking me.

Or maybe she is.

"What was I doing?!" I yelled back. "What were YOU doing?! Going after a giant snake-"

"Xiangliu."

I blinked. "What?"

"It's called a xiangliu," she said.

"Xiangliu, snake- WHO CARES?! What I'm trying to say is that what did back there was completely crazy and dangerous, and you shouldn't have done it!"

The girl narrowed her eyes at me. "Oh, I get it," she said. "Just cause I'm not one of your ninja pals, I can't fend for myself. I see how it is."

"That's not what I was-wait, you know who I am?" I said.

She rolled her eyes. "Everyone knows who you are, Lloyd Garmadon," she said. "Last time I checked, when you save Ninjago several times over, people are sure to have heard of you at least once."

"Well, yeah, but...you..didn't fangirl," I said.

She gave an offended look and said something that sounded like And I thought the red one had the big ego. "Okay, look, I appreciate all you've done for everyone. Not a lot of people can do what you've done or be nearly as brave. HOWEVER, I'm not going to swoon and squeal over a guy I haven't even met just because you're famous!"

I was a bit stupefied when she said that, but not in a bad way. In a good way. You see, the thing with girls is that most of time, they only dote on me for no other reason than that I'm the Green Ninja. Sure, Mom, Nya, Skylar, and P. .L didn't act like that, but Mom and Nya knew me beforehand, Skylar had just now been convinced that we were her friends, and P.I.X.A.L...well, something told me it wouldn't really matter to her anyway. So, to come across a girl who treated me like me, and not just "the Green Ninja", was extremely rare. All previous feelings of dislike for her seemed to disappear, and I immediately started to like her.

"HEY, ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!" she yelled.

"Huh?" I had gone back to the same stupid stare I had before, completely zoning out for a minute, not realizing she was talking. "Oh. Umm...could you repeat that?" I said sheepishly.

She glared at me. "Well, this is disappointing. At first I thought you were kind of nice and that maybe you weren't as shallow as I thought you would be-"

"Shallow?!" I was slightly offended. "I'm not shallow!"

"Oh really?" She said sarcastically.

"Look, I'm sorry if I came off like that," I said. "It's just every other girl I've met has acted that way, and having a girl who doesn't think that way is...relieving."

Her expression softened a bit. "You...DON'T like it when girls swoon over you?" she questioned.

"Heck no!" I said. "Do you know how annoying it is? It's always 'Notice me, Green Ninja!' and 'Please be my boyfriend, Green Ninja!' and 'Green Ninja' this and 'Green Ninja' that!"

"'Oh, Green Ninja, I know you have a restraining order on me, but I know deep down you want me!'" the girl joked.

I stifled a laugh at that. "You know, I actually had to do that once," I said.

She started laughing again. "Really?" she asked.

I nodded my head. "The funniest part of it was she violated it in under an hour." That made her laugh harder, and I joined in with her. Pretty soon, we were both on the ground laughing our heads off. We probably looked stupid, but I didn't really care.

After a few minutes, we finally stopped laughing. "You know," I said while standing up, "I think we got off on the wrong foot. How about we start over?"

"I think that's a great idea," she said. "I'm Keyonee." She stuck her hand out. "Keyonee Furosto."

"Lloyd. Lloyd Garmadon," I responded back, and I took her hand into mine. It was slightly cold, but incredibly soft.

"But I'm still kind of weirded out by the fact you never come to Sanctuary Village," Keyonee said. "Why is that?"

I stared blankly at her. "Never come where now?"

"Sanctuary Village?" she pressed. "Village right next to the river? Home of elementals?" I shook my head. From all I knew, the village she was talking about had never existed. "You've never heard of Sanctuary Village?!"

She gave a experated look. "Well, that explains a lot."

"But, just wondering, what do you mean by 'home of elementals'?"

She broke into a huge grin. "I can show you!" She started walking to the left side of her. "Anubis, let's go home!" Anubis, who had been laying quietly on the edge of the clearing, got up to follow her, but not before growling at me again.

"Anubis, be nice," she scolded. She gestured me to follow. "C'mon! It's only 5 minutes away."

I decided that it couldn't hurt to be a little late for dinner and jogged up to her side. Her smile broadened. I couldn't help but think how much nicer she looked when she smiled. I felt blood rush to my face.

Was I...blushing?

**Oooooh, sounds like Lloyd has himself a little crush!**

**Question of the chapter: What all do you think is gonna be in the village?**

**Again, sorry I didn't update like I promised. This summer was just really busy! I promise though, this time, I won't slack!**

**I love you guys so much! You're all just so awesome! Like, seriously, sometimes I wish I could jump through the screen and just give you all cookies! (Dj! Where are the cookies?!)**

I'm Sunnyonminecraft! Until the next chapter!


	3. Introductions and EXPOSITION!

**Frostbite**

**Chapter 2**

**Hey, guys, Sunny here! And OH MY GOSH IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS! MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY!**

**A little warning in advance: this chapter isn't going to have as many funny bits or character moments in there. This one is gonna have a LOT of exposition. Don't worry, next time, I'll be right back on track!**

**Answering reviews time!**

**Kairocksrainbow: Thanks so much! (Snatches cookie) COOKIES!**

**iluvninjagoTNSBFWgirl: Aww, thanks! You just made my day!**

**Guest: Thanks! Loyd's only my third favorite though (best ninja award goes to Jay)**

**Well, now that that's over...**

**Let them read fanfiction!  
><strong>

Loyd's p.o.v

I knew the village was gonna be weird when I met the talking fox.

We hadn't been walking for very long when we came to the edge of a rather large village. Well, now that I think about it, it was more of a small town than a village. The buildings were bigger and more advanced than in most villages. The people who were outside wore modern-looking clothes. There was a lot of new technology, something a lot of villages didn't have due to wanting to keep their old ways. However, there were a few things that had obviously been there a while. A temple-like structure was in the center of the village. It didn't have any paved roads. There was a river off to the far right where a few people were fishing. A couple of villagers were in a rice field near the riverbed working. Some kids were playing on a small patch of green grass right next to the village. But even with the strange combination of old and new, it didn't seem all that out of the ordinary for a place known as the "Home of Elementals." I was half-expecting to be something intimidating or completely crazy, but everything was so laid-back and welcoming. It felt like...well, a sanctuary.

"It's...normal," I said.

Keyonee gave a small laugh. "Just wait until you meet the residents."

"Why? What are they like?" I asked.

"Well, some of them are-" she started, but was cut off by the sound of some one yelling, followed by a huge creature dropping ungracefully in front of us. It looked to be a white fox with light blue markings on its feet, ears, and stomach, covered in soot. A small tuft of fur and silver speckles were on its forehead. It was at least 6 feet long-bigger than any fox I'd ever seen. It's eyes were the same color as Keyonee' s (minus the indigo specks) and had no pupil or whiteness to them. To top off the strangeness, it multiple tails, all fanned out on the ground. I thought for sure it had broken its back, but it simply got up and shaking off the soot.

"Let me guess. Sunny and Taylor are fighting again," Keyonee said.

Before I could question why she was talking to an animal, the fox, to my surprise, responded in a feminine voice, "No, I just decided to cover myself in ash and shoot myself across the village. OF COURSE THEY'RE FIGHTING AGAIN!"

I stared in bewilderment at the scene before me. "It-it talked!" I said. "The fox TALKED!"

The fox turned her head towards me, then back to Keyonee. "New guy?"

Keyonee nodded.

"Welp, might as well change back." In a millisecond, the fox was gone and was replaced by a red-headed 15-year-old girl. Her eyes had changed from blue to a brownish-green color. She wore a plain gray shirt and jeans. The only thing she'd kept was her funny blue fox-ears, which were on top of her head.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Gabby Revé," she said, and stuck out her hand.

I backed away slightly, not sure what to make of her, but Keyonee elbowed me and whispered, "Shake her hand, she's harmless." So, I shook it.

"Okay, now that introductions are over," Keyonee said, "Lloyd, do you want to help me stop a fight between two dragonoids?"

"What's a dragonoid?"

"I'll take that as a yes." She grabbed my arm and took off, practically dragging me behind her.

"Hey, wait! Slow down! Stop!" I pleaded. "You might make me hit a-"

_WHACK!_

"...tree..." I said. Why did this always happen when I was with this girl?

"Sorry," Keyonee said. She let go of my arm and took off running again.

_She only has one speed, doesn't she?_ I thought as ran along side her. Eventually, she skidded to a stop.

"So, what exactly are we trying to stop from fighting?" I asked. In that moment, a blast of fire completely burnt the tree next to me, causing me to jump.

"That," Keyonee said, and pointed to the direction the blast had come from. I turned my head and saw two blurs in the air. They dove and swerved in and out of the air, clashing continuously. At times, fire would come from one of the blurs, only to be dodged by the other.

Keyonee turned to Gabby, who was standing behind her. "What'd you think? Should we use the dog whistle or soak them?"

"You know the dog whistle just hurts my ears," Gabby said.

"Soaking it is," Keyonee said.

"How are you going to do that exactly?" I asked.

"Easy," Gabby said. She switched back to fox form. "Ready, Keyonee?"

"Ready," Keyonee responded. Before I could figure out what was going on, blue beams shot from Keyonee's hand and Gabby' s mouth (and I just now realized how weird that sounds) and hit both figures just as fire shot from them.

They both fell to the ground, soaking wet, and started coughing up ash. "Oh, COME ON!" one of them said. "Can we not fight without you-cough-shooting at us?!"

Now that I could finally see what they looked like, I found they were even weirder than Gabby.

The first one, a guy, had on a black shirt and torn blue jeans. His hair was sandy blond and covered his left eye. His eyes were a grayish-blue color. The other one, a girl, had caramel colored hair stuck in a messy ponytail and bright sky-blue eyes. She wore a plain yellow shirt and capris. Both had a pair of dragon wings sprouting out of their backs and long, scaly tails, the guy's being black and white while the girl's was blue and yellow. The male only had those qualities, but the girl had a pair of dragon-like ears on her head and a few scales on her face, neck, and arms. When I got closer, I could see her teeth were wickedly sharp and her pupils were in slits, like a snake's.

"Okay," Keyonee said. "Who attacked who first?"

"Sunny did!" the guy said, pointing at the girl.

"You were the one who dumped a bucket of ice water on me!" the girl said.

"Well, if you had been paying attention and not sleeping-"

"Yeah, like I'd sit there and torture my ears with all the bull crap you have to say."

"Sunny," Keyonee rebuked.

"Why not? I do that every time _you_ speak," the guy said.

"Ooooh," Gabby and I both said.

"Taylor!" Keyonee exclaimed.

Sunny's ears flattened. "Say that again."

"Oh, you mean what I just said about you constantly spewing out bull crap every time you speak?" Taylor said.

"Taylor, you are treading on thin ice," Keyonee warned.

"Hold on, Keyonee, I have to put this in a way that she will understand," Taylor said. "Okay, I-that's me, the person right in front of you- do that- that is, listen to your bull crap- every time you speak- that is, when the English language comes out of your mouth. Is that slow enough for you?"

Sunny was breathing heavily at this point and looked like she was ready to rip some one's head off. "Keyonee," she said, "hold me back."

As Keyonee held Sunny back by her wings as she tried to strangle Taylor, she gave an apologetic look. "Hey, sorry, but I'm not gonna be able to show you around town. Their fights take a while to resolve," she said. "You don't mind if Gabby shows you, do you?"

"It's fine. I understand," I said.

"Good. I'll be back in about half an hour. See ya then!" She turned her attention back to the two. "SUNNY, TAYLOR, WOULD IT KILL YOU TWO TO ACT LIKE REASONABLE ADULTS FOR ONCE?!"

Gabby and I took that as our cue to leave.

* * *

><p>"So, if you don't mind me asking-" I started when we had gotten back to the village.<p>

"I'm a kitsune," Gabby said.

I blinked. "Huh?"

"You were going to ask what I was. Every newcomer asks that question," she said.

"Okay," I said. "What's a-"

"A kitsune is a creature that can switch between human and fox forms," Gabby said. "Yet another question everyone asks. Don't you have any original questions?"

"Ummm...are there any other weird creatures that I need to know about?" I asked.

"That would have to depend on your definition of weird," she said. "But if you're looking for non-human elementals, there's gargoyles, harpies, phoenixes, xianglius, nekomatas, and of course, kitsune and dragonoids."

That confused me a little bit."So, elemental masters don't have to be human?" I asked.

She shook her head. "You misunderstood what I said. I said non-human elementals, not just elemental masters. The term refers to either to either elemental masters or elemental creatures, which is what I am."

I tried to wrap my mind around that. "So, if you're an elemental creature, what is your element?" "Ice, same as Keyonee' s," she said.

"I thought it was water," I said.

We stopped in front of the temple and Gabby started scratching her ear. "What made you think that?" she said.

"Well, the way you and Keyonee stopped that fight back there was by getting them wet," I reasoned.

"We shot at their fire blast," she continued. "And when you mix fire and ice, what do you get?"

A thought flashed in my head. "So, does that mean-"

"No, we are in no way related that robot you're friends with," she said.

"But, you have the same element," I said.

She walked into the temple. "Okay, this is a little difficult to explain on its own, so I'll just show you," she said, using her paw to gesture me to follow.

I walked in to see a whole bunch a murals painted and chiseled into the walls. Some of them showed events I recognized, like the First Spinjitzu Master fighting the Overlord and the first Serpentine War, but there others I didn't. Images of what looked like people and other creatures running away from a mob and of building a village.

"What is this?" I asked.

"We call it the Hall of Times Past," Gabby said.

"That's kind of a mouthful, don't you think?" I asked.

"Well, we tried 'Hall of Old, Dead Guys', but that just sounded dumb," she said.

She turned toward a part of the wall that outlined with a shelf filled with various books and scrolls. "Now where is that scroll? I just had it a few-there it is!" Switching back to a human, she pulled out a battered-looking scroll. "This is all of the family trees of the main five elements. Yours, your friends', and Keyonee' s are all in this." Curious, I rolled out the scroll.

Each one of the trees had a picture of an element next to a picture of a person. The first half had five separate lines that represented mine and my friends' families, but the other half had just one large one. At the very bottom was Keyonee, but also three other people I didn't see before. Two girls and a guy, to be exact.

"This is interesting, but this doesn't explain why they're not related," I said. "I mean, I get why you're not, since you're not human, and I know they may not be biological, considering Zane's a robot, but couldn't it be adoptive?"

"This is where it gets complicated," Gabby said. "If history has taught anything, it's that there's a yin to every yang, a different side to everything. The same is true for elements. Ice may be cool, calm, and graceful, like snow, but at the same time, it can be fierce, strong, and fast, like hail or a blizzard. Fire can be blazing, hot, and destructive, but it can also be warm and inviting."

I thought about that for a second. "So, for every elemental there's some one out there with the same power, but they have a different way of using it?" I said as we walked out.

Gabby' s ears flattened. "That's how it was supposed to be, but unfortunately, that not it is for most of the elemental masters."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"You remember the mural with the mob?" she said.

I nodded my head.

"That's how life was for us back then. Non-elementals didn't understand us, so what was the logical thing to do?"

"Try to communicate better and maybe try to understand?" I suggested.

"Logical thing to do when you're operating on the logic of a paranoid five-year-old," she corrected.

I shrugged.

"Lock us up or kill us, of course," she said bluntly.

I was dumbfounded. "What?! Didn't the First Spinjitzu Master do anything about it?!"

"Lloyd, it only started after he was gone. You don't seem to understand that even though they claimed it was fear, the real reason was only because they were mad that we were the ones who got his blessing. He trusted us to protect the land he made. They couldn't understand what was so special about us. The majority of people he gave elemental power to were orphans or people who weren't that high up on the totem pole. Heck, half of us were struggling to get by. Mix that in with both sides constantly bickering and refusing to listen to each other, and you've got a whole lot of hate," she said. "Also, you know he has a name, right? He's not just 'the First Spinjitzu Master.' His name's Masuta."

"Ohhhh," I said in understanding. "So, most of the other elementals died?"

She nodded her head sadly. "But, rather than just play the blame-game, we decided to be more mature than that. Why act like some bitter little kid for something that happened years and years ago when they already made amends? That's just irresponsible. We want to be better than that. Besides, our lives are great and peaceful now."

BOOM!

Right then, a small explosion came from the basement of a small auto shop near us. The door opened and a huge, red, eagle-like bird emerged from it and flew away, followed by brown headed woman in overalls smeared with motor oil and soot spraying a fire extinguishing down there all the while. "Seriously?! That's the fourth one this week! If they weren't immortal, I'd kill those phoenixes!" she exclaimed.

Gabby had a small smile on her face. "Okay, maybe not so peaceful."

* * *

><p><strong>A<strong>**nyone else think that I should change the rating to T after that little**** argument ****between Sunny and Taylor? I think maybe I'll do that...**

**Also, in case people don't know how to pronounce some of the words, here's a list of them.**

**Xiangliu: SHANG-LOO**

**Kitsune: KIT-SOO-NAY**

**Nekomata: NAY-KO-MA-TA**

**Sorry for going so long without an update. I've just been really busy with school and piano and church and POKEMON! ...I have a bit of an addiction. **

**Question of the chapter: Which other elemental creature do you think Lloyd will meet next? **

**I'm Sunnyonminecraft, until the next chapter, and Merry Christmas to all y'all!**


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